Flashcards for Afternoons

Children

In "Afternoons," the Children play a central but passive role, serving as symbols of innocence, catalysts for domestic change, and the main reason for their mothers' limited lives.

character

Husbands

In Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons," the Husbands are a largely absent yet essential presence.

character

Lovers (Alluded to in the Past)

In "Afternoons," the Lovers never appear directly; instead, they linger like a ghostly presence in the margins of the young mothers' everyday lives.

character

Young Mothers

In Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons" (1959, included in The Whitsun Weddings, 1964), the Young Mothers take center stage—not as individual characters, but as a collective portrayal of suburban women observed during autumn afternoons in a park.

character

“Summer is fading”

"Summer is fading" is the opening line of Philip Larkin's poem Afternoons (1959), which is part of The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Narrator (Larkin's observational voice) · Afternoons

“Something is pushing them / To the side of their own lives.”

This haunting image is drawn from Philip Larkin's short lyric poem "Afternoons" (1959), which is part of The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Larkin's lyric narrator

“Their beauty has thickened.”

"Their beauty has thickened" is a line from Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons" (1959), found in The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Larkin's lyric narrator · Afternoons

“An estateful of washing, / And the albums, lettered / Our Wedding, lying / Near the television”

This quatrain comes from Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons" (1959), which is part of The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Omniscient narrator · Afternoons

“Before them, the wind / Is ruining their courting-places”

This couplet comes from Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons," published in 1959 and included in The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Lyric speaker (Philip Larkin) · Afternoons

“In the hollows of afternoons / Young mothers assemble”

These opening lines are from Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons" (1959), which is included in The Whitsun Weddings (1964).

Philip Larkin (lyric speaker/narrator) · Afternoons

Falling Leaves

In Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons," falling leaves symbolize the inevitable loss of youth and personal identity.

Recreation Ground

In Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons," the recreation ground symbolizes the slow, unavoidable fading of personal identity and ambition.

Setting Sun

In Philip Larkin's poem "Afternoons," the setting sun symbolizes a slow decline and the quiet fading of one's sense of self.

Wedding Albums

In Afternoons, wedding albums reflect the quiet entrapment of domestic life and the gradual fading of personal identity within marriage.

Free Verse

"Afternoons" is made up of three stanzas, each with eight lines, and it doesn't follow a consistent rhyme scheme or a set meter.

Imagery

Larkin fills the poem with vivid visual details that ground its emotional message in the tangible world.

Personification

The poem's most striking moment comes in its closing lines, where an abstract force is personified: "Something is pushing them / To the side of their own lives."

Metaphor

The poem's central metaphor—that mothers are being pushed "to the side of their own lives"—hits hard with its accuracy.

Symbolism

The elm trees serve as a lasting symbol in the poem.

Juxtaposition

Larkin builds the poem using subtle yet powerful contrasts.

Enjambment

Larkin employs enjambment throughout the poem to evoke a sense of quiet inevitability, where one event seamlessly leads to the next.

Stanza

The poem's three equal eight-line stanzas create a formal regularity that ironically contrasts with its content.

Alliteration

Larkin uses alliteration carefully and effectively.

Irony

The poem is filled with a subtle irony.

Pathetic Fallacy

"Summer is fading" begins the poem, connecting the end of the season with the mothers' own waning youth and energy.

Motif

The motif of displacement — the feeling of being pushed away from the center of one's own life — appears throughout the poem.

fading

Gradually losing strength, brightness, or vitality — here suggesting that summer, and by extension youth and possibility, is slowly but surely coming to an end.

verb · Chapter 1

bordering

Running along the edge of something, forming a boundary. Here the trees line the outer edge of the recreation ground, framing the scene.

verb · Chapter 1

recreation ground

A British term for a publicly maintained outdoor space — typically a park or playing field — set aside for leisure and children's play.

noun · Chapter 1

thickened

Become heavier or fuller in body; used here to suggest that the women's youthful slenderness has subtly changed with age and motherhood, without calling them old.

verb · Chapter 1

prams

Short for perambulators — British English for baby carriages or pushchairs used to wheel infants and very young children outdoors.

noun · Chapter 1

hollows

Empty, sunken spaces; in the poem these suggest the vacant, unfilled stretches of afternoon time that feel meaningless or lost to the mothers.

noun · Chapter 1

albums

Bound books of photographs kept as keepsakes; here specifically wedding photo albums that record a moment of hope and identity now shelved and left behind.

noun · Chapter 1

lettered

Inscribed or printed with words; here the albums have the words 'Our Wedding' written or embossed on their covers, marking them as relics of a former self.

adjective · Chapter 1

sandpits

Shallow enclosures filled with sand where young children play; a standard feature of British parks and recreation grounds.

noun · Chapter 1

pushing them / To the side of their own lives

Being gradually moved away from the centre of one's own existence — made marginal in one's own story by the demands of children, marriage, and social expectation.

phrase · Chapter 1